A gun law plan the NRA or anyone else won't love

I stand firmly with President Barack Obama. Speaking at the Newtown memorial service on Sunday evening, the president said “these tragedies must end.” Usually so much empty political talk, saying something like that, but he backed it up. “No single law, no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society. But that can’t be an excuse for inaction.”

In the coming weeks and months, we’re going to hear a lot about guns and what to do about them.

I’ve got a plan. Actually, I first outlined this plan over the summer, days before the Aurora massacre. I had to edit that horror into my completed column. I’m revisiting my ideas here, in some cases simply stating again what I said, in some cases expanding on them, because — and forgive me for my hubris — but because I think they’re pretty good ideas that should probably make no one on either side of the gun issue too thrilled. In short, it’s a compromise.

Here it is.

1) If you’re over 21, you’re allowed to register to be a gun owner. Background checks would be carried out by some combination of federal, state and independent agencies. If you have a criminal record, mental issues, assorted other problems, you’re probably going to be denied.

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2) Why 21? Well, we’ve decided that’s the age you can legally drink a beer. So with that in mind, 21 seems like that a reasonable age to be allowed to own your own gun. You can shoot if you’re younger, but you can’t own.

3) Once you’re approved to be a gun owner, and before you can legally purchase a gun, you need to be trained in the use of firearms and pass a written and practical exam. In short, getting a gun license would be exactly as difficult as getting a driver’s license.

4) There will be no permit necessary to own any firearm technology that was already created in 1791, when the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution was written. You want to own a musket? Go nuts. Enjoy. There will be more about the Second Amendment later. Hold your tongue.

5) If you ever use a gun in a criminal act, or get caught with an illegal gun, the mandatory minimum sentences are going to be sky high. We’re talking decades, if not life. This will go a long way to the quiet those who insist “well then only the criminals will have guns.” Nope. You want a gun, you can have a gun. Simply register for it. You don’t register for it, or use it in a criminal manner? You’ll rot away in prison. (Stopping here for a moment: I realize everything I’ve laid out so far, and everything I will lay out, cannot be done in a day. Illegal guns aren’t going to magically disappear. This will take time. But, to echo Obama, can’t use that as an excuse for inaction.)

6) A ban on some semi-automatic and all automatic weaponry. I’ll even bend a little bit here. You can still own them, but they must be stored at whatever gun club you’ll join to shoot them. Think of them as race cars. You can enjoy the thrill of driving 180 MPH at the track, but you cannot drive the race car home with you.

7) And the now the Second Amendment. The right to bear arms. Here’s my take on the issue. If the writers of the Second Amendment were around today, do you really think, for one moment, they’d be OK with semi- and automatic weapons being legal to buy in most states? I can’t imagine so. There is no way they would see this as a good thing. And if you’re of the opinion it does make sense, and the Second Amendment is the Second Amendment, period, end of story, allow me to ask this: Is it OK for me to keep a tactical nuclear weapon in my living room? Or maybe just a few bunker buster bombs. Those are my “arms” of choice. Tell me how they are covered by the Second Amendment. I’ll wait.

And …

That’s the plan. More or less. I’ll let brighter minds flesh it out.

It’s a federal plan to be instituted by the states, and the states will comply because the feds could simply tie billions of dollars into it, much like they do with federal highway money and blood alcohol content limits. In short, you want your federal tax dollars, you’ll institute the laws.

So what would the above plan do? Pretty simple, you ask me: It would make it a lot harder for a homicidal maniac to get their hands on dangerous weapons. Would it make it impossible? Of course not. Just a lot harder.

In your angry emails and comments, please note I’m not looking to destroy the Second Amendment. There’s plenty of room for the “right to bear arms” in my plan. It just makes it a little harder to do so, makes it more of a thought-out decision than simply showing up at a gun show and walking out armed to the teeth.

It’s true what the gun lobby says. Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. And right now, in this country, we make it all too easy for unhinged people to get their hands on guns.